The present invention relates generally to seats for mass transit vehicles such as buses, and more particularly to seats of this type located at the back wall of the bus where access to the rear of the seat back is extremely limited.
In a typical mass transit bus, the last row of seats in the bus generally consists of five seats extending abreast from one side of the bus to the other. The backs of these five seats are usually located so close to the back wall of the bus that access to the rear of a seat back is extremely limited. Typically, the distance between the rear of the seat back and the back wall of the bus is only about 11/2 inches or so.
A seat back typically comprises a rigid shell portion and a removable pad portion mounted on the front of the shell portion. It is desirable that the pad portion be mounted on the shell portion with fasteners which are not readily accessible from the front of the seat, to reduce pilferage of the pad portion. To so mount a pad portion requires that there be access to the rear of the seat back. In the last row of the bus, the three middle seats may have seat cushions which are tiltable upwardly together, thereby providing access to the rear of the seat back, from below. However, for the safety of maintenance personnel or other reasons, it is undesirable for the two corner seats in the last row to be tiltable.
With respect to a corner seat, although there may be room between the outer side of the seat and the adjacent side wall of the bus for a hand to reach around from in front to a portion of the rear of the seat back, that portion of the seat back rear surface to which the hand has such access is relatively limited, comprising a narrow area adjacent the side wall of the bus. The hand cannot reach areas adjacent all four corners of the rear of the seat back, yet it is desirable to provide fasteners at these four locations.